New Commander in NE Denver

New District 5 Commander Marcus Fontain, a 27-year veteran of DPD, says he’ll be attending local events as part of an effort to communicate effectively with the community.

In Denver Police Department’s second recent round of musical chairs, Commander Marcus Fountain has landed in a seat at the head of District 5, which covers Stapleton, Montbello and Green Valley Ranch. Fountain (pronounced like Joan “Fontaine,” not like “mountain”), was assigned to District 5 by newly installed Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen in mid-July.

A Detroit native but longtime Denver resident, Fountain is a 27-year veteran of the DPD. He brings extensive command experience in operations support and investigations to the local patrol division, and is looking forward to connecting with community residents as he learns the ins and outs of the region.

To support crime prevention efforts, Fountain is focused on using effective communication. “In line with Chief Pazen’s goals,” said Fountain, “I really want to address the fear of crime through good communication.” To that end, Fountain is making himself and his lieutenants, including newly appointed Stapleton Lt. Kevin Hines, available at community meetings, farmers markets and regularly scheduled police update meetings across the district.

Fountain is already well aware of the night-time drag racing that goes on in parts of his district and conscious of the property crime that continues to plague the area, especially in Stapleton. But stats are looking up.

“We’re finally trending in the right direction with the Stapleton burglary problem that we previously discussed,” said Lt. Hines. “In prior months this problem was most pronounced in precinct 512, which is the portion of Stapleton located south of I-70. For the year to date in 2018 we’ve had 97 residential burglaries reported in that area, of which 77% of the incidents involved burglaries to open garages.”

Hines reports, however, that those crimes “peaked in June, when we reported 16 burglaries, and June followed two consecutive months in which we had 11 burglaries per month. By contrast, we only received five burglary reports (per month) in this area for both July and August.” There were 11 burglaries in September.

Fountain and Hines continue to urge residents to proactively protect their property by closing garage doors, keeping homes secure and continuing to report crimes in progress. Look for Fountain at upcoming community meetings, where he will help spread the word about crime prevention.